Madhabi Puri Buch: First woman to head SEBI, now accused of investing in offshore funds held by Adani group

Hindenburg Research alleged that SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had held investments in offshore funds that were also used by Adani Group. Buch called these findings baseless.

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Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. (File Photo)

US short-seller Hindenburg Research has stated that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) head Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband invested in offshore entities that were allegedly part of a fund structure managed by India Infoline and in which Vinod Adani, Gautam Adani’s brother, also had investments.

While Buch termed these allegations baseless, the Adani Group denied a commercial relationship with SEBI chairperson or her husband. The conglomerate called Hindeburg’s claims malicious and manipulative of select public information.

Buch, a former whole-time member of SEBI and its first woman chief, took over in March 2022 for a tenure of three years from her predecessor Ajay Tyagi.

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With over three decades of experience in the financial markets, Buch was a SEBI whole-time member between April 5, 2017, and October 4, 2021, during which she handled portfolios such as surveillance, collective investment schemes and investment management. During this time, she was known for cracking down on fraudulent tradings by two prominent television anchors of a business news channel.

In 2017, Buch passed a number of orders banning trading in suspected shell companies, based on the list drawn up by the government during its drive against black money.

In 2021, she passed a controversial order in the insider trading case of Deep Industries Limited. The regulator had examined Facebook profiles of the accused entities and found they were ‘friends’ on the platform and had ‘liked’ each other’s posts. “An insider can be by way of their association in any capacity or it can be by way of frequent communication with its officers, which can also be in their social capacity as evident in this case by frequent interactions, including on social media,” Buch said in her order.

After her tenure as a whole-time member of SEBI, Buch became the head of a seven-member expert group that was formed to help the regulator design in-house technological systems.

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She took over as chief of the market regulator at a time when it was facing cases related to the NSE co-location scandal and former NSE MD & CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.

Before her assignment at SEBI, Buch was a consultant with the New Development Bank in Shanghai. She has also served as the head of the Singapore office of the private equity firm, Greater Pacific Capital; MD and chief executive officer at ICICI Securities Limited; and executive director on the board of ICICI Bank.

A graduate in mathematics from Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Buch joined ICICI Bank in 1989. She completed her schooling from Fort Convent School in Mumbai and Convent of Jesus and Mary in Delhi.

She was named among the Most Powerful Women in Business by Business Today along with personalities like Zoya Akhtar, Sangita Reddy and Nayanthara.